We all had a good laugh, several in fact, when Giuliani first reappeared, stammering his way through one factual or logical faux pas after another.  But he didn’t care.  Trump didn’t care, either.  

They knew the power of persistent repetition, of constantly hammering away on up-is-down and black-is-white.  They knew that all too many of what should be the most educated electorate in the world were anxiously waiting to be told that up-is-down and black-is-white, that all too many wanted to believe it, partly or mostly believed it already, and were guided by confirmation bias.  And Trump and Giuliani knew that the Republican base is made up of such people.  

They also knew that the Republicans in Congress were best described by Yeats just shy of 100-years ago:    

“The best lack all conviction, while the worst  

Are full of passionate intensity.”

Finally, they knew that both the best and the worst of Republicans in Congress are cowards, terrified of that same Republican base at which Trump and Giuliani were aiming their persistent repetition.  

Trump and Giuliani have made the bet that, if they can stir up just that base and just by enough, if they can keep congressional Republicans curled up and cowering in the corner, the facts, the crimes, the conspiracies, the corruption, the treachery never will be punished.  And it appears to be working.

It is working well enough, and there has been so little push back, that both men are doubling down on their betrayal of every principle upon which this country was founded.  Now, while on foreign soil, Giuliani proclaims that Mueller is trying to frame Trump.  

These men are clowns to be sure, empty caricatures of clowns, but it is time to stop laughing at them.  Mueller cannot respond directly, but Democrats can.  Every Democrat in Congress, every Democrat on the stump, every official in the Party, every ad and every argument need to start calling these twin liars what they are: subversives with no honor and no code of morality that have put power and self-preservation above country, that are willing to destroy the great American experiment in democracy to achieve their own ends.  And remember: persistent repetition works.

(Edited for spelling.  I think, to save time, I’m just going to add this disclaimer to the first draft of every diary I write, from now on.)